


Happy Arbor Day!

by Haywire



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 00:30:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1569374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haywire/pseuds/Haywire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ann comes back to Pawnee to celebrate Arbor Day with Leslie, at her behest of course, and April gets drawn into the celebration as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Arbor Day!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thinlizzy2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinlizzy2/gifts).



> Written for thinlizzy2 for Rare Women 2014, I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Set after the end of the current season of the show. I tried to keep spoilers to a minimum / zero but heads up just in case I missed / forgot something.

“Why did we have to get up so early this morning again?” April asked, stifling a yawn.

“Because, April, it’s Arbor Day.” said Leslie with no further explanation.

“It’s because the tree we just planted needs to be fully in the ground and ready to receive the first rays of the sun.” Ann added, brushing hair out of her face and wiping some dirt off of her cheek with the back of her hand.

“Sweet, perfect Ann is right, April. It’s Arbor _Day_ , not Arbor Afternoon or Arbor Evening. The tree needs to be planted before dawn, it’s just how it works. Trust me, this isn’t my first Arbor Day, I- wait, is it _your_ first Arbor Day, April?” Leslie’s eyes went wide. “Dear lord, do you mean to tell me that you’ve been working with Parks and Recreation this long and you haven’t properly celebrated Arbor Day until now?!”

Before April could answer the door to JJ’s Diner opened and the man himself waved them inside. They’d been standing outside the diner for several minutes now, having arrived there before it opened - unheard of for April and Ann, not out of the ordinary whatsoever for Leslie.

“Mornin’ Leslie, ladies. Have a good start to your Arbor Day?” inquired JJ.

“Tiring. I want to go to bed.” April said.

“Shush, you’ll feel much better once you get some waffles into you.” Leslie entered the diner, followed by Ann and reluctantly by April.

“Grill’s already up and running, won’t be long.” JJ said and disappeared into the back.

“Wait, we didn’t give him our order?” April asked.

“Waffles, of course. With a little green food coloring put into the whipped cream just because.” Leslie replied while walking to their table.

“Leslie placed it for us.” Ann clarified.

“Well, it’s more of a standing order, to be fair, but she’s right.” Leslie stood behind her chair and waved at the table. “Sit, sit. Though be careful, because on your seat you’ll fiiiiiind…”

“Presents!” Ann said. “Sorry, I know I shouldn’t be surprised by presents from Leslie but I’m tired.” She pulled out her chair and took her present off of it, placing it on the table. April did the same and sat down, then started to unwrap the gift.

“Wait wait wait, not yet.” Leslie said. “Well, it’s _almost_ sunrise I guess,” she said, checking her watch and peeking outside the diner’s windows. “so technically it’s all right.”

April, who hadn’t been listening, finally got the bow off of the box and opened it, pulling out its contents and placing them on the table in front of her. She frowned at the bonzai tree, trying to come up with words but instead her mouth hung wide open, and she just gestured questioningly at the tree, unable to speak.

“Surprise!” Leslie shouted. “There’s more inside too, some tools and stuff for looking after it. Happy Arbor Day!”

“That’s… something, all right.” Ann said, smiling. “Thank you, Leslie, I’m gonna leave mine boxed up until I get back home though.”

“Karate Kid.” April blurted out. “That’s what I was thinking of but was too freaked out to remember.” She turned her gaze to Leslie, raising an eyebrow. “Does this mean you’re my sensei? Are you gonna try to make me wash your car or something? Will you teach me how to do a crane kick?”

“Yes, no, and no.” answered Leslie in order as their waffles arrived. “Wait, did you just call me your sensei?” She put her hand over her heart, making a little ‘aw’ noise as she did so. “Ann, did you hear that?”

“They grow up so fast, don’t they?” Ann said with a smirk in between forkfuls of waffle. Before she could eat another she grimaced. “Ow, did you just kick me under the table?”

“Leslie told me to do it.” April said with her own grin. “I’m her highly trained assassin now, so you’d better start being nice to me, Ann.”

“Hey, I’m always nice to you.” Ann said in a slightly hurt tone. “Oh, but hey, speaking of karate…”

“I know kung fu, too.” April fibbed. “And jiu jitsu, and a bunch of other things. It’s like the Matrix, Leslie had all of those things and more programmed into my brain.” She chopped at the table, knocking over the bottle of syrup which Leslie calmly picked up and placed upright while still working on her waffles.

“Right, right,” Ann said with a dismissive wave of her hand and a roll of her eyes. “but what’s this I hear about Johnny Karate? It’s all over the internet, one of the nurses from my old job was telling me about it in an e-mail.”

“Oh, that’s just Andy’s new musical persona. It’s going to make us millions, he already has a record deal and we’re in discussions to make a television show and a movie too.” April said nonchalantly, spreading the whipped cream around her waffles while she spoke.

“It’s not quite that big yet, Ann,” Leslie piped in, having finished the first of her waffles much quicker than either of them. “but it’s pretty great. Andy’s a natural with those kids, and he’s got, what, how many weekends worth of kid’s parties booked now, April?”

“Infinity plus one.” she quipped, reaching for the syrup.

“It’s a lot, anyway.” Leslie said. “You should really see him, it’s amazing how he can connect with the kids, how he thinks like them and can speak their language and as I’m saying this out loud it’s maybe not all that surprising.” She blinked and shrugged. “But it’s still pretty awesome. He’d make a fantastic dad some day.”

“That is kind of surprising, though.” Ann said, cutting up a chunk of waffle with her knife and fork. “I mean, I can see how he’d be great with kids I guess, but Andy as a father?”

April squirmed in her seat, remaining silent on the topic. Leslie picked up on the silence and stopped eating, putting her own fork and knife down.

“April, why are you so quiet all of a sudden? Is it- oh my gosh you’re _pregnant_ aren’t you?!”

“WHAT? NO LESLIE.” She all but shouted in response, looking disdainfully at the other two women. “Not all of us are eager to spawn or whatever, you know. God.”

“I don’t know, you and Andy as parents… yeah, I could see that.” Ann said, looking at Leslie with a grin. “The kid could have your looks, Andy’s smile, maybe- OW! Ok, you _definitely_ kicked me that time.”

“It’s a reflex, it happens whenever someone pisses me off.” April said with an innocent smile. “Or when Leslie orders me to do it. Guess which one that was?”

“On second thought, yeah, no, maybe I was wrong about that.” Ann reached down and rubbed her shin, scooting her chair closer to Leslie and further from April.

“Oh wait, I get it now, the one with Jaden Smith right? Is that the one?” Leslie asked.

“I’ll get Ben to show you, he’d love that actually.” April quickly whipped out her cell phone and started typing away on it. “I’m texting him now, he’ll clear that right up for you.”

“He’s asleep right now but maybe after, oh, wait.” Leslie took her cell phone out of her pocket and blinked at the screen. “No, he’s awake apparently and is screaming me in all caps about how I need to see the original.” She put the phone down, but it kept buzzing and vibrating as more texts arrived. Glancing down she scowled. “Now he wants to spend all Arbor Day watching all of those movies.”

“You’re welcome.” April smirked, turning to Ann. “Espionage and subterfuge was one of the latest modules she installed directly into my brain. Want to see the scar where they surgically implanted the interface?”

Ann and Leslie just exchanged glances, then went back to wordlessly eating their waffles.


End file.
